Customers' cryptocurrency worth $6.3 million was unaccounted for at the time of Dasset's collapse, the liquidators said. Image / Getty Creative
Where in the world is Stephen Macaskill?
Liquidators, the Serious Fraud Office and angry customers are no closer to finding the chief executive and director of failed Auckland cryptocurrency exchange Dasset, two years after its collapse.
Russell Moore and David Ruscoe (both of Grant Thornton) were appointed liquidators soon after an extraordinary meeting of Dasset shareholders on August 7, 2023.
Macaskill was pressed for information on a number of issues at that meeting, including the accuracy of his financial reports, why customers could not withdraw funds, with complaint calls going unanswered.
Moore and Ruscoe could recover just $600,000 of $6.9 million in digital assets – meaning some $6.3m worth of cryptocurrency held in customers’ accounts was missing.
There was one ray of sunshine in the latest six-monthly report, released this week: the recovered funds are now worth $1.4m (cryptocurrencies have surged under Donald Trump’s presidency, which has eased regulation on the sector).
But members of a WhatsApp-based Dasset customer support group were also quick to note that the crypto appreciation is barely enough to cover the liquidators’ costs – and that the liquidators have won the right to sell some of the recovered virtual coins to fund their ongoing efforts.
The liquidators spent just over $333,000 in the latest six-month period (to August 14). Their report noted they won procedural orders “to convert digital assets to New Zealand dollars to cover anticipated liquidation costs of up to $901,738.38 up to August 2025″.
Easily the largest part of the $38,873 in disbursements listed for the six months to August 14 was $29,080 paid to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting fees.
In May, the High Court ruled that cryptocurrencies held by the liquidators of Dasset are legally recognised as property.
In their new report, the liquidators said that, having gained that legal clarity, they set a cut-off date for customer claims: November 10 this year.
Ruscoe and Moore said they continued to investigate a number of trades executed on offshore exchanges in the build-up to Dasset’s collapse, including exchanges that allowed derivatives trading or speculative trades betting on cryptocurrency movements.
Their latest report said: “To date, we have received four claims from employees totalling $47,304 and a preferential claim from the Inland Revenue Department for PAYE and GST for $150,932.
“At this stage, it is unknown if there will be any funds available to make payment to preferential creditors.
“To date, we have received three unsecured creditors’ claims totalling $293,017.”
Listed creditors include Techemy (also a major Dasset shareholder) and service providers including AWS, the Salesforce-owned Slack Technologies, ZenDesk and Auckland-based OriginID, which supplied Dasset’s customer onboarding software – whose owner earlier told the Herald he terminated Dasset’s contract six months before the liquidation over unpaid bills.
In August 2023, the Herald visited the Queen St apartment address listed by Macaskill in a Companies Office filing, only to be told by the building’s manager that he had disappeared three months ago, with rent owing.
“The CEO has not responded to the liquidators since day three of the liquidation and is believed to be overseas,” Ruscoe and Moore said in their latest report.
“We continue to explore all avenues to contact and communicate with the CEO, including any legal powers granted to us as liquidators of the company.”
Those avenues have included contacting the Serious Fraud Office, which opened an investigation in February of 2024.
The SFO has been asked for comment. The agency has previously said it won’t talk about an ongoing investigation.
The liquidators said Macaskill appeared to be the only person who knew in close detail how Dasset operated.
“The CEO is understood to retain the key knowledge of how the company operated and how user records were stored,” they said in their report.
In a text message to the Herald the day before Dasset’s August 14, 2023 liquidation was announced, Macaskill said: “Dasset has not had stable banking since January. The banks do not like the crypto industry.”
That turned out to be the CEO’s first and only contact. He did not respond to follow-up calls and texts and has become an online ghost.
Dasset’s banking was provided by Crown Capital.
“Crown ended its relationship with Dasset for a number of reasons – chief amongst them is that the banking industry and by extension our own banking partners are not comfortable with servicing these types of businesses,” managing partner Marvin Yee told the Herald soon after the liquidators were appointed.
He added: “I can confirm that we have no knowledge of missing funds during the time Dasset was a client of ours. I don’t want to comment on rumours or other people’s experiences with Dasset. However, I can say that Crown – and others, it would appear – found them very hard to get hold of by phone.”
Dasset director and CEO Stephen Macaskill (above) during a 2023 interview for a Blockchain NZ podcast series.
Macaskill’s dormant LinkedIn account said he graduated from the University of Rochester in New York with a finance degree in 2010 before forming his own precious metals trading company in Denver then in 2016 moving to Auckland, where he became president of the Blockchain Association of New Zealand.
Dasset customer Leo D’Ambrosio, who works in the IT industry in Wellington, had $20,000 worth of cryptocurrency with Dasset.
Does he think he’ll see any of it?
“My hopes are very low, but still present,” D’Ambrosio told the Herald this morning.
“After seeing that over 90% of the recovered amount was destined for the liquidators, my hopes decreased.”
Like others in the WhatsApp support group, D’Ambrosio wanted Macaskill to be found and questioned.
But he also hoped authorities will probe who knew what and when, and the levels of oversight. “I am sceptical about any one person being blamed for this,” he said.
The rub is that law enforcement and regulators have only limited ability to prod crypto operations. The Financial Markets Authority warns that cryptocurrency exchanges are not regulated in New Zealand and not protected by any Government guarantees.
The tide could be turning, however. Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee recently flagged a ban on crypto ATMs on the advice of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.